Faith,Ritual And Spatial Significance Of Orders

Due to a vast territory of China, huge differences in natural environment and humanities background caused a variety of local society. Zherong is located in inland mountains areas of northeastern Fujian. In accordance with the flow of Longxi, this area is divided into thirteen regions as the unit of regional organizations. Between the upstream and downstream, the inhabitant holds together in life and death, which constitutes a huge community of destiny. Ma Deity is the most revered folk god within the realm. Thirteen regions regard Ma Deity as the core. The alliance is strengthened through holding Ying Xian ceremony together and constructing sacred space, which maintains normal orders of the local community. The operating mechanism of Zherong local society is the sacrificial organization of thirteen regions that regard Ma Deity religion as the core. This dissertation will choose thirteen regions of Zherong as the research object and combine with the anthropological fieldwork as the research method. In the premise of clarifying Zherong local society and development contexts of Ma Xian believe, the aim of this dissertation is to explore in complex environment of multi surname village, the operation pattern of Zherong local society from three dimensions of belief system, ritual and symbol and space system. Based on selecting a typical single surname Jing and a multi surname Jing as an example respectively, this analysis will focus on order arrangements within the realm, which will be helpful to comprehensively grasp the operation rules of the grass-root society. Hopefully, it will provide a vivid case study for the research of Chinese complex rural society.